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People are throwing around the 'game manager' moniker like its a bad thing. Well, if you call a QB who throws short to intermediate passes in place of a running game and is successful at it a 'game manager' then I am all for Ben being a game manager. That means that Tom Brady is a game manager ... Joe Mantana was a game manager. I believe those guys have 7 super bowl victories between them. I'll take it. Ben is a great QB who has already led the team to 2 SB victories, and if he can take a little risk out of his game and still reap the rewards, then I say go for it.

The guy was having a career year until his injury and injuries to the offensive line knocked everything off course. Haley and Ben hadn't even implemented the entire offense. When all is said and done I think this offense could play both ball control through passing and go vertical.

I think the offense was iimproving as well as being balanced until Ben got hurt then we went into scramble mode and could not recover. Balance on offense is essential to winning football. When Ben got hurt the defenses knew our backups were challenged as far as passing effectively. Maybe we need to invest in a better backup QB in case this happens again.

I lost a bit of respect for BB this year. His Haley / Arians comments, expressions, etc went to far. He is supposed to be the #1 leader on this team and set the example for everyone else. He didn't do that. I thought the team and Haley needed his support and he didn't provide any.

I lost a bit of respect for BB this year. His Haley / Arians comments, expressions, etc went to far. He is supposed to be the #1 leader on this team and set the example for everyone else. He didn't do that. I thought the team and Haley needed his support and he didn't provide any.

Chadman agrees with this too. Ben didn't show enough leadership this season in that regard. No matter his feelings about the OC situation, no matter if the system suits his style best- he should have put on a stronger leadership face.

A scheme based on "timing" is all about pre-snap reading a defense. Which man is singled or where is the gap in the defense based on look. I am not convinced Ben is the best at this (on the other hand Tom Brady is one of the best). Therefore I am not convinced Ben will ever be a Tom Brady. On the otherhand, the playoffs present a whole other level of complexity to the QB job and it is one reason why Peyton seems to fail, whereas QBs that thrive on broken plays excel. It has been proven time and again, Peyton is great in the season, but average in the playoffs. IF Ben gets to a playoff, he can be deadly.

A scheme based on "timing" is all about pre-snap reading a defense. Which man is singled or where is the gap in the defense based on look. I am not convinced Ben is the best at this (on the other hand Tom Brady is one of the best).

Nor are there 20 QBs who are better at it, like some Steeler fans imply. I'd say there are four at most who are, given that Roethlisberger's INT percentage is a mere 2.0% this decade.

All this Ben can't read defenses, no pre-snap acumen, everyone does it better than Ben comments are nonsense.

1) You don't complete 63% of your passes without a good pre-snap read. You'll be lucky to complete 50% if, as many of you say, Ben has to wait for the receiver to be open before he throws it. Wrong, that's how the quarterbacks that become backups function, they rarely throw a ball anticipating the receiver to be open and rarely, if ever, throw a receiver open.

2) You don't have a miniscule INT ratio not being able to read defenses pre-snap or once the play is started and you see something different than you anticipated

3) You don't maintain an 8 yard YPA not being able to read a defense, a deep ball requires as much predetermination as a deep out.

4) Finally, you don't have a 93 quarterback rating if you can't tell what the defense is trying to do to you.

The number of plays that Ben makes outside the pocket aren't nearly as numerous as many believe. Typically, the plays he makes by scrambling and buying time become huge plays and you remember them, but you don't remember the 10 throws prior where Ben drops back, surveys the field, makes the throw and moves the chains, because they don't show up ESPN highlight reels.

Ben uses his ability to escape a collapsing pocket and his strength to hold off tacklers typically as a last resort. I'm not sure what many of you watch or if you simply parrot what the mediots (media idiots) try to propose as fact. Sometimes a receiver doesn't get open, sometimes Ben misses an open receiver, and sometimes Ben simply makes a bad throw (see Dallas and Cincy II this year) that doesn't mean that Ben can't read the defense, get a good pre-snap read, etc, it means he made a mistake.

You just don't put up the wins and the numbers that Ben does being an average to below average quarterback in this league as many seem to believe.

Just for comparison sake, the two best quarterbacks of the modern era have quarterback ratings of 95 and 96 and completion percentages of 65 and 63, so Ben compares quite favorably to Tom Brady and Peyton Manning. The difference is the way each quarterback goes about playing the position. Everyone looks at Ben's big plays outside the pocket and thinks that's all he does as compared to the classic drop back and throw styles of Brady and Manning.

Instead of belaboring this years second half failings (for whatever reason), off field issues from 4 or 5 years ago and the fact the Ben plays quarterback a bit differently than others, watch a game more closely and see how many throws come out of Ben's hand on time and accurately. If I were the offensive coordinator of this team, I'd hand Ben the d@mn playbook, put together a game plan each week, go over specific things during the week about down and distance and circumstance during practice and then let Ben go and call the game as he sees fit and provide insight on the sideline between drives. Trying to force him to do this and that isn't a recipe for success, Ben has been around football at a high level and understands the game better than all of us armchair OCs could ever imagine.